


Stitched Together (edit)

by prettyface_lonelyheart



Category: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 16:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyface_lonelyheart/pseuds/prettyface_lonelyheart
Summary: An edited version of "Stitched Together".





	Stitched Together (edit)

**Author's Note:**

> Another edit I did for my portfolio. A few readers suggested I make this into a series and I'm open to the idea! Should I have any more installments, both versions of "Stitched Together" will be included!

“Hey, are you doing anything on Friday night?” Hugo looked up from his composition notebook.

“You know I’m not,” Isabelle scoffed, pulling her black leather jacket over her shoulders and gathering her long hair to the side.

She threw a playful smirk his way and pulled the zipper up in on swift motion.

“Well, excuse me for asking,” Hugo rolled his blue eyes and returned the friendly expression. “Anyway, there’s this thing I’m doing with the guys.”

“The toy-making thing for St. Jude’s? I’ve heard of it.”

Isabelle saw posters of the Brookstown Toy Shop pinned on every bulletin board around campus. Well, the boards she saw anyway, since she rarely strayed far from her usual four-building route. All her classes—plus her frequented dining pavilion—were in Brookstown’s “east wing”, which consisted of the Art, Humanities, and Communications buildings.

He nods. “I was wondering if you’d like to come and help us out.”

“Just you, me and your friends?”

“And their girlfriends, too.”

To this, Isabelle’s lips made a straight line across her face, her chin going up and down.

“Something wrong with that?”

Taken aback by this, she quickly shook her head and tucked a waterfall of hair behind her ear. He didn’t sound offended, just curious.

“No, not at all. It’s just that... Never mind, it’s stupid,” Isabelle’s gaze dropped to her lap.

She fidgeted with the ring on her left middle finger, running the opposite thumb over the black, plastic rose that sat on the center of the thin, gold band.

“Isabelle, tell me,” Hugo coaxed, placing his hand gently over her stocking-covered knee.

Her dark brown orbs gazed upon his face.

She still couldn’t figure out how she ended up with him.

Throughout her teenage years, she’s accepted the fact that she was just not dateable. She was convinced there was, in a fact, a God somewhere, when Hugo Stiglitz not only asked her out, but actually _meant_ it. Isabelle couldn’t count the number of times she’d been asked out as a joke on one hand. Other times, she was just flat-out ignored.

Hugo was incredibly handsome. Short, blond curls sprung from the top of his head with the sides and back buzzed. He made hearts soar simply by the tug of his lips up one cheek, two creases forming over his peach complexion. While he’d been in the United States for several years now, he still maintained his European accent.

“It’s just that... I’ve met a few of your friends before and they were nice. But what if the others don’t like me? And their girlfriends...” Isabelle tried picking her words carefully. “I’m just... different. Like, bad different.”

One of the reasons why their relationship was unusual was his choosing of someone outside of Greek life, which wasn’t common in Brookstown. She wasn’t involved in anything for that matter. As a writer, the closest thing that aligned with her interests was the school paper, but she didn’t even _like_ reporting. It never really bothered her since she was always driving, studying, working, or sleeping to have any time for anything outside of school.

“They’ll love you, Isabelle. You’re so sweet and creative. I just know they will,” Hugo reassures. “You can sit with me the whole time. I won’t mind.”

Isabelle smiled. This time, a more genuine smile.

She loved how understanding he was. It wasn’t easy telling him about her past, being alienated and tormented so much to the point of having mental breakdowns, skipping class due to anxiety attacks, and wanting to end it all. Everyone was making memories and falling in love for the first time. Isabelle was trapped between the white walls of the emergency room twice, both for suicidal ideations, awaiting her transfer to a behavioral health facility. It was the first time she’d ever been in the back of an ambulance.

After the first hospitalization, she’d closed herself off even more. Middle school was already hell for her. It didn’t help that a nasty rumor got out, where she supposedly threatened someone for rejecting her invitation to attend the end-of-the-year eighth grade dance with her. It was ridiculous. She would never hurt anyone. People who actually _knew_ her knew this too, but there wasn’t anything she could do to repair the damage.

High school wasn’t much better. She looked to reinvent herself, but the first day of freshman year, some jock approached her and asked if she was “that one girl who wanted to kill someone”. Again, relentless bullying followed for the next four years. She was surprised she even graduated, considering how many times she’d thought about what it would be like if she was just gone. _No one would have cared_ , she said to herself. So much that it became a mantra.

Her dream to change the world through her writing was enough to push her to keep going. That, and hopefully meet someone who would look past all the trauma she’d been through. To finally feel the love she felt mental illness had kept from her.

Hugo knew all of this. He knew she suffered from depression and anxiety. He knew social settings weren’t really her thing and she preferred spending time with him while he talked about soccer or a new film project he was working on for class. (She wasn’t the sporty type at all, but she loved hearing about his family’s tradition come soccer season, where they’d gather around in bars with their closest friends, some with streaks of black, red, and yellow face paint across the cheek.)

Even if the days when people muttered “psycho” towards your direction while you walked the unforgiving high school halls wasn’t the most ideal discussion to be having when you’re getting to know someone, Hugo, though shocked at first, took it in stride over time and didn’t mind holding her hand to calm her or leaving with her when things proved to be overwhelming.

* * *

 A week later, Isabelle was parked in one of the student lots.

She sat in the driver’s seat of her black Nissan Juke for what felt like hours, taking deep breaths and fixing the white collar peeking out over the neckline of her sweater.

Next, she titled the rearview mirror to get a glimpse of her makeup. For this occasion, she opted for a simpler look, passing on the black-as-night eyeshadow and dark red lipstick. She was already wearing all-black clothes, which would be enough to draw the attention of the preppy crowd gathered at the SAE house. It was probably best to skimp on the makeup.

The two layers under her leather jacket with the fur lining weren’t enough to keep her from freezing.

_It’d probably help to be indoors._

Isabelle made her way to the informally dubbed “Greek street”, where several fraternity and sorority houses lined the outskirts of Brookstown.

She felt small as she neared the large, red brick house with a shingled roof. On the center of the white, triangular roof extending from the front were the golden letters for Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Holding up the white roof were four pillars. The middle two framed the entrance and surrounding windows.

Isabelle went up the four steps that connected the ground to the porch and announced her arrival with a _thump, thump, thump_ of the golden door knocker on the black door.

A man wearing a dark blue SAE hoodie answered, “Hi, can I help you?”

“Oh, uh...” Isabelle hesitated, burying her hands as deep as she could in her pockets. “Is Hugo there?”

Before either of them could get a word in, a white hand clapped over the man’s shoulder and Hugo came into view.

“Schatzi, you made it!” he leaned past the door frame and planted a kiss on Isabelle’s blushed cheek.

He pulled back and introduced the two.

“This is my girlfriend, Isabelle. Isabelle, Donny.”

“Oh! Pleased to meet you!” Donny extended a hand towards their guest.

Isabelle shyly took it and gave it a shake.

She was invited inside the warm foyer, a chandelier hung from the high ceiling above their heads.

As she stomped off the snow that didn’t melt onto the porch and unzipped her jacket, Donny spoke again.

“So sorry about that. I just haven’t seen you before. We usually recognize everyone who comes to our door right away,” he scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, like all the girls are lining up for you, Donny!” Hugo laughed as he helped Isabelle out of her jacket.

“You know what—“ Donny sucked his teeth and playfully punched Hugo’s arm.

“They better not!” a woman with light brown hair and pale skin came into the foyer.

“’Course not, babe,” Donny pulled the woman close with his arm around her shoulder.

“Good,” she cracked a smile before turning to the other woman in the room. “I’m Chase.”

“Isabelle.”

This time, Isabelle was the one to put her hand out. Chase clasped her hand with hers and shook it.

“Did you guys start yet?” Hugo asked Chase.

“No, we’re just hanging out in the living room,” she replied and looked at Isabelle again. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone here!”

Now in front of ten or so people, Isabelle’s heart went into jockey mode: rush, followed by a spike, a more intense rush, repeat...

“This is Isabelle, Hugo's girlfriend,” Chase announced as Isabelle gulped.

There were probably two genuine greetings from two of the sorority sisters. Everyone else either had a forced smile or just stared.

“That’s Hannah; her boyfriend, Mark; Jules; her boyfriend, Jake...” Chase introduced each person from left to right.

Funny how they waved or smiled now that they were singled out, even if only for five seconds each...

Isabelle simply smiled and gave a nod to each pair.

“So now that everyone’s here, why don’t we get started?” Chase proposed.

As everyone got up and gathered around the dining table, Isabelle let go of the air caught in her throat. At least maybe now she could just sit next to Hugo, going unnoticed while she listened to everyone else chatting.

Once she’d settled in her chair, she felt his hand on her shoulder farthest from him. They met eyes and he gave her a comforting smile.

"Hugo, that teddy bear’s not going to stitch itself together,” Lew, one of the guys, joked.

The pair looked in front of them, their cheeks tinted pink. Lew had the two bear-shaped felt pieces lined up, one leg done.

With the exception of “am I doing this right?” and “I think this is good enough...” being thrown around, everyone worked quietly, trying to finish at least one bear.

Isabelle slowed down a bit to look at other people’s work.

A girl sitting across from her was gluing little red rhinestones around the eye of her bear.

With the relaxed atmosphere, she was feeling a bit bold. Only problem was Isabelle forgot the girl’s name. She tried to make eye contact, but the closest she got was a quick glance. Not to be deterred, she spoke out in her direction.

“That’s cute!”

Isabelle froze when the girl didn’t acknowledge the compliment.

Was she too loud? She didn’t think so. She thought she was loud enough for the girl to hear, but not so much that she was shouting. People did always tell her she spoke too quietly...

 _Fuck, it’s so quiet. Everyone heard me_ , Isabelle thought to herself.

She thought she was in the clear, but one of the guys caught her eye. He looked from the rhinestone girl to Isabelle and let out a close-mouthed laugh from his throat.

_Noooooo—_

“Oh, were you talking to me?” the girl asked with a gentle smile. “Sorry, I was just focused on getting the shape right.”

The sinking feeling in Isabelle’s stomach floated right back up, a grin of her own resurfacing.

“I-I was,” Isabelle laughed a little, nervously. “And it’s okay.”

“Oh, thank you, then!” the girl said.

She resumed her work, placing the last rhinestone at the tip of the heart. Her hands hovered over her bear as if the eyes could roll off at any second. “Done!”

Hugo looked over at Isabelle while she tied off her thread with a knot.

“Good job,” he said.

* * *

Four cardboard boxes full of teddy bears later, the girls of Kappa Delta headed back to their house after they gathered all the scissors and spools of thread. The guys were already upstairs when Hugo and Isabelle put on their jackets and shoes.

Leading her down the shortest path to the parking garage, he took note of her watching the snowflakes flurry around the dull glow of the streetlights. It was so cold outside, yet she was keeping his side—and heart—warm with her arm interlocking his.

Isabelle hit the middle button of the beeper on her key ring. The click that signaled the car was unlocked. She was about to pull the driver’s side door open, but Hugo stopped her.

“Wait, I wanted to give you something,” he unzipped his letterman jacket halfway and pulled out a stuffed bear.

It was light brown with a black, velvet ribbon around its neck and bat wings by the right ear that doubled as a bow. On its face were two hills for closed eyes with three small lines on each for eyelashes. Below the eyes was a black circle for a nose.

“Hugo, it’s adorable,” Isabelle held it in her hands and looked up at her boyfriend, her eyes sparkling.

He gave her a pearly-white smile. His eyes dropped to his feet and his lips closed around his teeth in a smirk. He loved that look.

“I just wanted to say how happy I am that you came,” he said, gazing at her again. “I’m proud of you. I always am.”

Isabelle’s eyebrows pulled to the center of her forehead and she gulped back tears. She threw her arms around his shoulders and closed her eyes.

“You’re the first person to ever tell me that.”

He returned her embrace, his lips pressed over her hair before resting his cheek on her head.

They stood like that for a few minutes until he felt her knees shake.

No matter the intensity of her warmth, it was no match for the cold surrounding them.

Hugo pulled back, his hands caged over hers.

“It’s too cold out here,” he shivered and held open the car door for her.

Standing on the tip of her toes, she kissed him on the lips before slipping into her seat behind the wheel.

“Text me when you get home, okay?” he smiled.

She set the bear down to put her seatbelt on.

Once she’d nodded his way in confirmation, he gave her a peck on the cheek and closed the door.


End file.
